Many auctions will state that “I’m selling this item for a friend”, or “a woman in my neighborhood found these in her attic and asked me to sell them on eBay”.
eBay, who has a knack for keeping an ear to the ground and spotting to trends, saw a golden opportunity in this kind of arrangement. In 2002, they launched the “eBay Trading Assistant” program.
The program is run on the same basic principal as eBay consignments, only more formalized. Sellers can now advertise themselves as Trading Assistants on eBay, and people with items to sell can use eBay’s Directory of Trading Assistants to find someone in their area.
Because of eBay’s minimum requirements for becoming a “TA”, only those sellers with experience and a good reputation (or high positive feedback ratings, in “ebay language”) have the privilege of selling items for others.
Benefits for Everyone
The system benefits the Trading Assistant by expanding their reach far beyond the next door neighbor. When a seller joins the Trading Assistants Directory, he or she is telling the world that they are willing to sell for others.
For those seeking out eBay consignments as a means to cash in their “stuff”, the system offers an “official” source of experienced eBay sellers and information about how things
work.
And of course all of this brings more business to eBay.
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